Staying alive means being hypervigilant — Earlier this month, shocking news was reported by Florida newspapers, recounting how a person incarcerated at the federal medium-security Coleman prison had been indicted on first-degree premeditated murder charges for strangling his cellmate. Both individuals were being held in the prison’s SHU (“special housing unit” for those charged with disciplinary…

Prison controlled me for 15 years, but now I’m speaking out — Earlier this year, Leonard Schenk reached out to me through the federal email system, saying he had heard I was working on a report to document the systemic human rights violations within the Bureau of Prisons. He described rampant abuse and myriad types of retaliation. And then, out of the…

I feel like a slave in chains with no key. By Bo’Arm (so nicknamed because at the age of 11, he was shot in his right arm in a drive-by, causing it to heal deformed) Home is what I hunt in my dreams, but never find. It’s like the system is designed…

Apple pie, flags…and guns By Rob Barton When I was growing up the ‘hood of Southeast DC, having a gun seemed like a necessity. It made me feel cool, hip and empowered, yes. But it also made me feel safe. Feeling the barrel of the gun against my skin while…

Why did it take a media exposé to reveal these atrocities? — By Pam Bailey (Holding in my heart Antwan Holcomb, who is on the way now to USP Thomson) I’ve seen this play out so often for so many issues: It’s called “management by crisis.” In other words, a situation that is an inhumane travesty all the time only bursts into…

Instead, we each need to be the change we seek — By Robert Barton I hate it when people tell me not to do something that they themselves do all of the time. I’m a firm believer that when trying to change someone’s behavior, you should model the desired actions you wish to see. As a child, my mother used to…

Once the courtroom drama is over, and a conviction is handed down, you enter a world of surreal make-believe — By Randall T. James, U.S. penitentiary Lompoc (CA) Do you ever wonder to your family member or just the person in the news after the courtroom drama of the trial ends? After the cameras go away and the media move on to the next ‘big story”? [Of course, in most…

But I feel like I am screaming into a void By Antwon Holcomb (Bo’arm), serving 93 years at the Hazelton federal penitentiary in West Virginia Tears sometimes fill my eyes when I think of all the pain I have caused: Visions of a mother crying over a casket and blood on…

He was the most honorable ‘audience’ my prison band ever entertained — On May 9, Sundiata Acoli, 85, was released from prison after 49 years. The former member of the Black Liberation Army was convicted in the 1973 shooting death of a state trooper along with Assata Shakur, who later escaped from prison and now lives in Cuba. Here, one of our…